Population health begins with the patient and revolves around a comprehensive health and care record. Data Scientists are continuously learning the new human behavior of different population “cohorts” and correlating with individual patients’ health, for improved care outcomes. This trend is gaining a lot of traction and bringing innovations in population health management (PHM) domain.

PHM is now one of the top 6 fields in healthcare, attracting investments from venture capitals, angel investors and personal investors.

Traditional population health management programs classify populations based on high-level risk indicators and focus on the top 20% of the population that sum up to 80% of the costs. Providing personalized population health management services is now catching pace. It emphasizes on ‘me’ therapy than ‘we’ therapy, addressing the unique needs of every individual.

Let’s navigate into how startups are preparing for a new healthcare landscape:

Using Blockchain technology to share health data to improve public health. Look at how technology can facilitate information exchange across a spectrum of data types, including clinical trials and real world data. For example, patient-generated data from connected devices provides clinicians with more insights into population health. It provides ways to leverage large quantities of data into biomedical and healthcare industries.

Care coordination platform to make clinical workflow more efficient by integrating electronic medical records and proprietary patient engagement tools. These tools pull data from wearable fitness trackers and other sensors, this is in addition to information from lab tests or medical devices. Platform’s interface, which features colorful charts and graphics, also makes it easier for physicians to discuss lab results with their patients

Identify health problems within its patient population, enable people to collect data on their own health conditions, use analytics to personalize care plans for individual patients, connect existing hospital and community programs with individuals who could benefit from community resources, and use technology to help people maintain/ improve their health

We have the technology and tools in place, the key is putting them together in an arrangement where the right information and incentives are shared. That is where population health becomes interesting. It's all current technology - starting with just smartphone app registration, secure messaging, and being able to view a patient's clinical timeline via smartphone. The challenge is to develop an ecosystem that allows this information to be used effectively.